What is voter intimidation?
- Reality Team
- March 3, 2022
What is voter intimidation?
Voter intimidation is when someone tries to threaten, coerce, or scare you away from voting or voting for the candidate of your choice, or for voting for the candidate of their choice, as well as preventing you from voting at all.
Is voter intimidation illegal?
Voter intimidation is illegal and should be reported immediately. You can report voter intimidation to your local election officials, your local district attorney, your state Board of Elections, and the Department of Justice.
What does voter intimidation look like?
Voter intimidation can take many forms. Explicit forms of it include:
- Making threats;
- Being violent at the polling place;
- Brandishing firearms (though allowing open carry of firearms at polling places is state-dependent);
- Following voters and attempting to or disrupting voters at polling places;
- Writing down license plates;
- And so on.
What should I do if I see voter intimidation?
If you see voter intimidation happening, or you experience intimidation, you should report it immediately.
- You can report voter intimidation to the Election Protection Hotline at 1-866-OUR-VOTE or 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA (en Español).
- You can report voter intimidation to your local election officials.
- You can report voter intimidation to your local police department.
- You can call the U.S. Department of Justice voting rights hotline at 1-800-253-3931.
What is a poll monitor / poll watcher?
A poll watcher, all called a poll monitor or election observer, is usually a party trained and certified individual who is allowed to observe elections. They must keep their certification credentials with them.
Who can be a poll monitor?
Many states require poll monitors to be trained and certified by a political party. Many states also require poll monitors to be registered voters in the location they are monitoring.
What can and can’t poll monitors do?
Poll monitors are allowed to observe elections taking place. Depending on the state, they are also allowed to do other things, like challenging the credentials of a voter.
Are guns allowed at polling places?
Some states explicitly ban firearms at polling places. Other states permit them.
Can people campaign in or around polling places?
State laws vary regarding prohibiting electioneering in or around polling places, but generally some form of campaigning is prohibited.
The National Conference of State Legislatures has a list of the prohibitions for each state.
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